After day one of competition in Brno, Denmark appears to be in the best condition with numerous players remaining in every event. In the men’s singles Denmark’s Rune Ulsing appears to be performing well once again after a stellar performance in Belgium at the beginning of the month. After going through qualifications once again, Ulsing is in the quarter-finals and will be pitted against Ukrainian Dmytro Zavadsky. Suffering from a strained abdominal muscle, Canada’s third seeded Stephan Wojcikiewicz struggled to gain his form and lost in the first round to Soren Gravholt 21-14, 11-21, 21-13. Gravholt also had to fight his way through qualifying, and now finds himself in the quarter-finals against fifth seeded Jan Vondra of Czech Republic. Another notable match was Irishman Scott Evans’ win over Sweden’s Mathias Wigardt in three games 18-21, 21-15, 21-15.

In the women’s singles several seeds fell, in fact half of the seeds failed to make it through to the quarter-final round. India’s Neha Pandit lost to her teammate Gayatri Vartak who had to find her way through qualifying. Unfortunately Vartak’s euphoria was short lived as she lost the very next round to Denmark’s Camilla Overgaard in two close games 22-20, 21-19. Overgaard now plays another Indian, Trupti Murgunde, in the quarter-finals. Germany’s Carola Bott was another giant killer as she knocked out seventh seeded Mariya Diptan in the first round, and followed that up with a win over Norway’s Sara Kvaerno to book her quarter-final place.